Integrated circuit with a mode control selecting settled and unsettled output from a filter

ABSTRACT

In a signal processing integrated circuit having an analog to digital converter and a digital filter having a plurality of taps separated in time, when starting a conversion after a reset or a change of input channel, the filter will have an incomplete set of input data as the delayed inputs to an output calculation are all zero from the reset operation. After reset, during the time that data are filling up the filter pipeline, the calculation of an output value will give a result that holds information about the input, but does not present the data with the same scaling and frequency content as the fully settled filter. The integrated circuit selectively provides two modes, on that provides only fully settled data from the filter or and another that provides all data from the filter, including unsettled data. Knowledge about the filter coefficients can be utilized by a user or user process to extract information about the input from the unsettled data.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 60/216,346, filed Jul. 5, 2000, by inventors Axel Thomsen,Sherry Wu, Edwin de Angel, Aryesh Amar, Lei Wang, Eric J. Swanson andJerome E. Johnston, entitled “ARNOLD PROVISIONAL” which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/054,542, filed Apr. 3, 1998, by inventors Wai Laing Lee, Axel Thomsenand Dan Kasha, entitled “ANALOG TO DIGITAL SWITCHED CAPACITOR CONVERTERUSING A DELTA-SIGMA MODULATOR HAVING VERY LOW POWER, DISTORTION ANDNOISE”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/321,583, filed May 28, 1999, by inventors Aryesh Amar, Jerome E.Johnston and Donald Keith Coffey, entitled “USE OF POINTERS TO ENHANCEFLEXIBILITY OF SERIAL PORT INTERFACE FOR AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT WITHPROGRAMMABLE COMPONENTS”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/695,702, filed Oct. 25, 2000, by inventors Axel Thomsen and Lei Wang,entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR IMPLEMENTING A ROUGH BUFFER FOR CHARGING ASAMPLING CAPACITOR”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/695,706, filed Oct. 25, 2000, by inventors Axel Thomsen, Edwin deAngel, Sherry Wu, Lei Wang and Aryesh Amar, entitled “TECHNIQUES FORSIGNAL MEASUREMENT USING A CONDITIONALLY STABLE AMPLIFIER”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/695,707 filed Oct. 25, 2000, by inventor Edwin de Angel, entitled “AMULTIPLIER WITH EFFICIENT CARRY RIPPLE”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/695,708, filed Oct. 25, 2000, by inventors Aryesh Amar, Edwin deAngel and Eric J. Swanson, entitled “INDEPENDENT CONTROL OF CALIBRATIONREGISTERS IN A MULTI CHANNEL A-D CONVERTER”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/695,703, filed Oct. 25, 2000, by inventor Axel Thomsen, entitled“INDIRECT TECHNIQUES FOR MEASURING 1/f NOISE”.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/695,705, filed Oct. 25, 2000, by inventors Axel Thomsen, Edwin deAngel, Sherry Wu, Aryesh Amar and Jerome E. Johnston, entitled“APPLICATIONS OF A CONDITIONALLY STABLE INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIER TOINDUSTRIAL MEASUREMENT”.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to signal measurement, and more particularly tosignal measurement using a conditionally stable amplifier.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Techniques for amplification of an analog signal, sampling andconverting the signal to digital and processing that signal usingdigital techniques are known in the art.

Instrumentation amplifiers are commonly used to amplify values of ananalog signal. Noise, distortion and offset are critical performanceparameters.

Following an instrumentation amplifier in a signal processing chain istypically an analog to digital converter. At its input, the signal issampled onto a capacitor. To reduce loading effects of the sampleprocess used to sample an analog signal, a rough buffer may be used toprecharge the sampling capacitor followed by a period of fineadjustment. The sampled analog signal is converted to digital, such as aone bit digital stream and filtered to produce a multibit digitalsignal.

Filters for doing such processing, such as FIR filters and FIR sincfilters are known. Some such filters may use coefficients formultiplying digital values. Others, such as Hogenauer filters, describedin an article by Eugene B. Hogenauer, entitled “AN ECONOMICAL CLASS OFDIGITAL FILTERS FOR DECIMATION AND INTERPOLATION,” published in IEEETransactions on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Volume ASSP-29,No. 2, April 1981, perform the filtering without coefficients.

A typical data acquisition system may consist of an ADC preceded bysignal conditioning circuitry and followed by digital signal processingand communication circuits. Often the digital signal processingcircuitry includes an FIR filter, typically performing the function ofdecimation and low pass filtering of the signal.

Any FIR filter will have a settling time. The function of the FIR can bedescribed asY(z)=Sum(A _(i) *X*z ^(−i))where A_(i) are the coefficients of the filter, X is the input, Y theoutput and i the index of the taps running from 0 to n. X*z^(−i) thenrepresents the data delayed by i clock cycles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

When starting a conversion after a reset or a change of input channel,the filter will have an incomplete set of input data as the delayedinputs are all zero from the reset operation. During the time that dataare filling up the pipeline of delayed data (until the nth sample of X),the calculation of Y will give a result that holds information about theinput, but does not present the data with the same scaling and frequencycontent as the fully settled filter. Knowledge about the filtercoefficients is required to extract information about the input from theunsettled data.

To some users these unsettled data may be useful information, to othersthey are not. If one were to provide unsettled data to a user who isonly interested in settled data, there would be additional softwareoverhead necessary to separate good from bad data.

The invention provides for a select bit that allows the user to specifywhether or not he wants to see the unsettled data or only settled data.Any overhead of distinguishing between settled and unsettled data ispulled into the hardware implementation and thus requires no softwareoverhead for the user.

The foregoing and other features, aspects and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of the present invention when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1.1A is a block diagram of an integrated circuit chip in accordancewith one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 1.1B is a block diagram of an integrated circuit chip having a modeselect pin by which a user can specify settled or unsettled data inaccordance with one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 1.2A illustrates the integrated circuit of FIG. 1.1A with moredetail in the analog circuitry portion.

FIG. 1.2B illustrates the integrated circuit of FIG. 1.1A modified toinhibit output until a filter fully settles.

FIG. 1.2C shows a typical FIR filter which can be used in accordancewith the invention.

FIG. 1.3 is a schematic diagram of an amplifier architecture used inconjunction with FIGS. 1.1 and 1.2, which includes chopperstabilization.

FIG. 1.4 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a delta sigmamodulator in accordance with one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 1.5A is a high level view of the digital portion of the chipillustrated in FIG. 1.1.

FIG. 1.5B is a view of FIG. 1.5A, modified to include settled modeselection.

FIG. 1.6A is a diagram showing an architecture of the serial portincluding serial interface and calibration and memory control logic.

FIG. 1.6B is a diagram showing a modification of the serial port of FIG.1.6A to include settled mode selection.

FIG. 2.0 is a high level schematic diagram of a rough buffer utilized inconjunction with amplifier 110 of FIG. 1.1.

FIG. 2.1 is an implementation of a rough buffer with an n-type outputstage.

FIGS. 2.2 and 2.3 show the step response of the rough buffer of FIG. 2.1to a negative step and to a positive step, respectfully.

FIG. 2.4 shows implementation of a rough buffer with p-type output stageshowing the slow and fast responses.

FIG. 2.5 is a schematic diagram of an implementation of a complete roughbuffer scheme including a comparator for selection of the proper outputstage.

FIGS. 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8 show respectively an input voltage to the roughbuffer, a comparator output from the rough buffer implementation shownin FIG. 2.5 and the rough buffer output showing a fast responseindependent of input polarity.

FIG. 3.1 is a block diagram of a multiplier architecture in accordancewith the invention.

FIG. 3.2 illustrates an encoding scheme utilized in conjunction with themultiplier architecture of FIG. 3.1.

FIG. 3.3 illustrates an expansion of the algorithm to show the carrypropagate and coding scheme utilized with a multiplier architecture ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3.4 shows an example of the encoding scheme of FIGS. 3.2 and 3.3 asapplied in the prior art.

FIG. 3.5 illustrates a multiplication example using two's compliments inthe encoding scheme of FIGS. 3.2.

FIG. 4.1 is a register diagram of the serial port 140 showingcalibration and SRAM/control logic 150 of FIG. 1.1.

FIG. 4.2 has an illustration of the serial port command structure.

FIG. 4.3 shows more of the serial port command structure shown on FIG.4.2.

FIG. 4.4 illustrates an example of how a command would be interpretedwith dedicated physical channel, gain and offset relationships.

FIG. 4.5 shows an example of pointers used to select a calibrationregister.

FIG. 4.6 shows the new pointer based register allocation in accordancewith one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 5.1 shows a flow diagram of a test algorithm in accordance with oneaspect of the invention.

FIG. 6.1 shows a partial schematic, partial blocked diagram of theintegrated circuit of FIG. 1 used to measure the output of a thermalcouple.

FIG. 6.2 is a partial schematic, partial blocked diagram of theintegrated circuit of FIG. 1 used to measure the output of a bridgetransducer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1.1A is a block diagram of an integrated circuit chip in accordancewith one aspect of the invention. At the left of FIG. 1.1A, a number ofanalog input terminal pairs, ain_(i)+ ain_(i)−, are shown. The number ofanalog input terminals is a matter of design choice. In some versions ofthe chip, only two input pairs are used, whereas in otherimplementations, four input pairs or more may be utilized. Each of theinput pairs is fed to multiplexer 100 which selects the particular inputto be applied to programmable instrumentation amplifier 110, describedmore hereinafter. The output of the programmable instrumentationamplifier 110 is applied to a differential fourth order ΔΣ modulator120. Once the analog signal is converted to a digital bit stream, it isapplied to programmable sinc FIR filter 130 where it is processed andultimately converted to an output value to be sent to externallyconnected equipment over serial interface 140. Serial interface 140contains or has associated with it calibration information storage andcontrol logic 150. A clock generator 160 is used to generate internaltiming on the chip.

A latched output 170 is utilized to control external logic. The input of120 is analog and so everything before and up to the output of thedifferential fourth order ΔΣ modulator constitutes the analog portion ofthe signal processing. A separate analog power supply VA+ and VA− isavailable for this portion of the circuitry. In addition, a separatepower source VD+ and DGND are available for powering the digital portionof the chip (e.g. items 130, 140, 150 and 160). A reference inputV_(ref+) and V_(ref−) is used for the differential fourth order ΔΣmodulator. An externally supplied capacitor may be applied acrossterminal C1 and C2 of the programmable instrumentation amplifier 110 toimplement antialias filtering.

FIG. 1.1B is a block diagram of an integrated circuit chip having a modeselect pin, labeled “mode” by which a user can specify settled orunsettled data in accordance with one aspect of the invention.

FIG. 1.2A is a block diagram showing portions of the chip shown in FIG.1.1 in more detail. In this rendition, the multiplexer 100 shows twoalternative configurations. The upper configuration shows a two inputmultiplexer whereas the bottom configuration shows a four inputmultiplexer. As discussed above, the number of signal pairs multiplexedis a matter of design choice.

FIG. 1.2B illustrates the integrated circuit of FIG. 1.1A modified toinhibit output until a filter, labeled “FIR Filter” fully settles.

FIG. 1.2C shows a typical FIR filter which can be used in accordancewith the invention. When starting a conversion after a reset or a changeof input channel, the filter will have an incomplete set of input dataas the delayed inputs are all zero from the reset operation. During thetime that data are filling up the pipeline of delayed data (until thenth sample of X), the calculation of Y will give a result that holdsinformation about the input, but does not present the data with the samescaling and frequency content as the fully settled filter. However, ifone has knowledge about the filter coefficients one may extractinformation about the input from the unsettled data; that is, knowingthe number of delay increments from the time the input channel is resetor from the time when a new input channel is selected, together with thefilter coefficients A_(i), one may calculate the state of the input.Some user processes may have or may be modified to have such calculationcapabilities.

Returning to FIG. 1.2B, when a user requires fully settled information,the user selects settle mode by either applying a select voltage to the“mode” input pin of FIG. 1.1B or by setting a settled mode bit as shownin FIG. 1.6B hereafter.

FIG. 1.3 is a diagram of a four stage chopper stabilized instrumentationamplifier using feed forward compensation utilized as the activeamplification element for the programmable gain instrumentationamplifier shown in FIG. 1.2. This amplifier is conditionally stable anduses multipath feed forward compensation and uses a plurality ofintegration stages I1 through I4. The characteristics of this type ofamplifier are described in an article entitled “A FIVE STAGE CHOPPERSTABILIZED INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIER USING FEED FORWARD COMPENSATION” byAxel Thomsen et al., presented at the VLSI Circuit Symposium 98, a copyof which is attached to the specification and which article isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and in U.S. Pat. No.6,002,299 by Axel Thomsen, which patent is also incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

The multipath feedforward compensated amplifier is best suited for thelow level signal measurement because of the following attributes. Itallows for a implementation of chopper stalibization without noisepenalties or large chopper artifacts. It also allows one to build a lowdistortion amplifier without large power consumption.

In a multipath amplifier with chopper stabilization, the offset is oftendominated by the input referred offset of the second stage.

In the Multipath Architecture, the first integrator is often followed byattenuation to achieve low unity gain frequency of the integrator whilemaintaining low noise and reasonable device sizes.

An attenuator will act as gain when calculating the input referredoffset of the amplifier. The addition of integrator I0 at the output ofI1 before the attenuation reduces the second stage contribution by theattenuation factor used (in the Example 128x). Before$V_{os} = {{{V_{os2} \cdot 128}{\frac{1}{A_{v1}} \cdot {After}}\quad V_{os}} = {{V_{os2} \cdot 128 \cdot \frac{1}{A_{v1}A_{v0}}} + {V_{os1} \cdot \frac{1}{A_{v}}}}}$

FIG. 1.4 is a block diagram of a differential fourth ordered ΔΣmodulator shown in FIGS. 1.1 and 1.2. This ΔΣ modulator is described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/054,542, filed Apr. 3, 1998, byinventors Wai Laing Lee, Axel Thomsen and Dan Kasha, and entitled ANALOGTO DIGITAL SWITCHED CAPACITOR CONVERTER USING A DELTA-SIGMA MODULATORHAVING VERY LOW POWER, DISTORTION AND NOISE”, referred to above, whichapplication is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Thistype of ADC is very suitable for DC measurement applications. Otheranalog to digital conversion techniques can be applied here as well. Itshould be pointed out that it is easy to implement the delta sigma ADCin switched capacitor techniques and achieve a rail to rail input range.

As shown in FIG. 1.1, the output of the differential fourth ordered ΔΣmodulator is applied to programmable sinc FIR filter 130.

FIG. 1.5A shows an overview of the digital circuitry in more detail.Specifically shown is the two stage filter. It is a fixed rate sincefollowed by a selectable rate sinc³ filter. These filters areimplemented according to Hogenauer with hardware optimizations, butthere are many ways to implement. The sinc³ is also a Hogenauer. It canbe bypassed too.

FIG. 1.5B is a view of FIG. 1.5A, modified to include settled modeselection. When settled mode is selected, control logic 304 assertscontrol over the serial port to prohibit output of data from thefilter(s) until the filter output is fully settled. When the filters arefully settled, the control logic 304 asserts the “settled” signal to theserial port and permits the serial port to transfer output data to theuser.

FIG. 1.6A shows the register space in the serial port. This portcontrols the operation of the port and provides an interface to theuser. It is an SPI port and is described more in detail hereafter. Manyother implementations are possible, too.

FIG. 1.6B is a diagram showing a modification of the serial port of FIG.1.6A to include settled mode selection. In this approach, theconfiguration register 550 includes one or more bits to specify whethersettled mode (output of data occurs only when the filters are fullysettled) or unsettled mode (data is output substantially continuouslyregardless of whether the filter is settled or not) is in effect. Inthis approach, the user sets the desired settled mode by writing to themode selection bit(s) of the configuration register over the serialport.

This approach is an alternative to the use of a separate “mode” pinshown in FIG. 1.1B.

FIG. 2.0 is a schematic diagram of a rough buffer used in conjunctionwith a switched capacitor circuit such as might be found used inconjunction with the delta sigma modulator 120 shown in FIG. 1.

A rough buffer amplifier 200 receives a voltage input V_(in) andproduces an output, which, when switches IR are closed, will chargecapacitor C at an aggressive rate. This permits the capacitor C toapproach the input voltage, V_(in), quickly. Once a capacitor C ischarged approximately to the input voltage, the rough buffer is switchedout by opening switches IR. At the same time, switches IF are closedpermitting the capacitor to enter a fine charge mode in which the V_(in)is applied directly across capacitor C permitting the capacitor tosettle very quickly to the value of V_(in). Once capacitor C is chargedto V_(in), switches IF are opened and switches 2 are closed connectingthe charge capacitor C across the input of op-amp 210. A switchedcapacitor input has input current CxV_(in)xF. A rough buffer willprovide this current so that the current from the signal source is onlyCxV_(error)xF, where V_(error) is the residue of the voltage error afterrough charging. This reduces the loading on the input source and permitsgreater accuracy.

In the past, a single stage amplifier, such as a folded cascode has beenused. This requires high power consumption on the same order as thatconsumed by the op amp and reduced output swing due to the cascodenature of the circuit. A two-stage amplifier would provide a wider swingand can provide reduced power when compared to a single stage device.

FIG. 2.1 is a schematic diagram of a two-stage amplifier. In thisillustration, the rough buffer amplifier is shown in more detail in ann-device implementation. This approach uses a first stage amplifier andan n-device output stage. The output response of the two-stage amp shownin FIG. 2.1 is shown in FIGS. 2.2 and 2.3. Considering FIG. 2.2, asignal step couples through capacitor C_(c) to node V2, this turns offdevice M2, so that the change in V_(out) is only achieved by I_(bias)with a slope of dV/dt=I_(bias)/C. The only way to speed this up is toapply additional power which would increase I_(bias).

Considering FIG. 2.3, a step and input voltage couples through capacitorC_(c) and pulls up V₂. This turns on device M2 stronger (there is aquadratic relationship between I_(d) versus V_(gs)) and quickly pullsdown node V_(out). Low quiescent current is required, but there is alarge current available for the pull down.

There is still however, a remaining problem. If V_(out)>V_(x), theamplifier is still slower. If an amplifier of opposite devices (e.g.,turn all P devices to N devices and all N devices to P devices) is used,the behavior is good for V_(out)>V_(x) but is slower for V_(x)>V_(out).This is illustrated in FIG. 2.4.

FIG. 2.5 shows a two-stage amplifier using a comparator to select whichoutput stage to utilize in accordance with the invention.

As shown in FIG. 2.5, two different second stage amplifiers 220 and 230are utilized. Second stage amp 220 is implemented using n-devices andsecond stage amp 230 is implemented using p-devices. Two separate pathsare utilized selectively for receiving the output of the first stageamplifier 200. One path is selected when the useN switches are closedand the other is selected when the useP switches are closed. A decisionas to which path to utilize is made using comparator 240, the output ofwhich is determined by the relationship between V_(N) and V_(X). Adecision is made during phase 2 which output to select during the phase1 rough charge. The selection is made such that the fastest responsepath for a given relationship between V_(n) and V_(x) is selected.

The input to the first stage amplifier 200 can be advantageously aninput stage that uses rail to rail input. These are known from the priorart. Further, one may use chopper stabilization to remove the offsetfrom the voltage V_(error).

FIGS. 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8 show the transfer function, a step response andthe output to the step response of the two-stage amplifier shown in FIG.2.5, respectively. Specifically, FIG. 2.6 shows relationships betweenV_(x) and V_(IN). FIG. 2.7 shows alternating rough charge fine chargephases and shows the state of the output of the comparator useP.Finally, FIG. 2.8 shows the output V_(out) during the various stages ofoperation.

The net result of this implementation is that there is always a fastresponse to a change in input signal regardless of the polarity of theinput signal.

FIG. 3.1 is a block diagram of a serial multiplier of FIG. 1.5implementing the encoding scheme shown in FIGS. 3.2 and 3.3 to achievemultiplication. As shown in FIG. 3.1, a gain word is loaded into shiftregister 410. The encoding scheme is discussed more in U.S. Pat. No.3,691,359 to Dell et al. However, Dell et al. do not show thearchitecture of FIG. 3.1, merging in the final pass and two's complimentmultiplication. This gain word represents the gain setting specified forthe particular channel being processed. The stored gain word is suppliedto encoder 411 where a table corresponding to FIG. 3.2 is derived fromthe gain word stored. The incoming serial bits of the bit to bemultiplied are examined two at a time to determine whether 0, B, −B or2B processing is required in accordance with the table in FIG. 3.2. Theselected output is then passed through 4-1 mux 413 to multiplexer 414where either the output from the 4-1 mux 413 is applied to adder 415 andone output from adder 415 may be selectively recirculated as part of acarry ripple operation to a second input of mux 414, thus saving a rowof adders. The output of the summed output from adder 415 is appliedinto a sum register which can be selectively recirculated to produce theultimate product at the output of the multiplier. A counter 418 isinitiated at the beginning of multiplication and issues a mult_doneoutput when the multiplication has been completed.

FIG. 3.4 and FIG. 3.5 show examples of multiplication in accordance withone aspect of the invention. In example 1 shown in FIG. 3.4, two numbersA=2 and B=5 are to be multiplied together. A is represented in binary as000010 and B is represented in binary as 0101. Multiplication inaccordance with the invention differs from prior art multipliers inseveral respects. In a first respect, the multiplier A, is analyzed twobits at a time instead of one. Considering first the two at leastsignificant bits of the multiplier A, they are “10.” This translates toa multiplication of B by the number 2.2B results in a shift to the leftof the numeral B resulting in the four least significant digits of 1010.Each of the more significant pairs of bits in multiplier A are “00.”Each of these results in a 0 multiplication of B resulting in 0.Therefore the least four significant bits of the product 0×B will be0000. As can be seen in example 1, a pair of 1's precedes each of theproducts resulting from the pair wise multiplication of B. In addition,a single “1” occurs for the first single bit position for which nomultiplication was done. This permits proper tracking of the signed bitduring execution of the multiplication. Thus the product 2B is precededby two 1's or in other words 111010 represents 2B where the first two1's are used for tracking the signed bit and the last four bits are theproduct of 2×B or 10 (decimal). The 2 bit examination of digits of themultiplier result in a two bit shift for each pair of bits examined.This results then in a four layer addition shown in example 1. When allof these binary numbers are added, the correct results shows at thebottom, namely 10, or “0000001010.”

Example 2 described in FIG. 3.5 is the same as example 1 except that themultiplier is a negative number, namely −2. The representation of anegative number is done using a two's complement of the positive number.In other words, −2 is equal to the two's complement of 2 or 111110.Again, considering the two lest significant bits of the multiplier A,namely 10, one will multiply the number B by the number 2 which producesthe same result that occurred in the previous example. Each of the nexttwo pairs of bits is 11. The first 11 has a carry in of 0. The remainingvalue A−B comes from table 3 of FIG. 3.5. The next 11 has a carry in of1 resulting in a value of zero from table 3 preceded by a sign and signextension bits “11” in a 3B representation. 3B=4B−B.

The family of chips shown in FIG. 1 is designed to support a techniquefor performing data conversion which greatly increases the use ofcalibration registers.

This is accomplished through use of a group of setup registers, aconfiguring register, offset and gain calibration registers, and aserial port command structure.

The setup registers contain logical channels to be converted. Eachlogical channel contains bits which are used to specify conversionoptions such as conversion rates, gain selection, unipolar/bipolar inputspan, selection of the physical channel to be converted, etc.

The integrated circuits provide offset and chain calibration registersfor each physical channel. These registers hold calibration results andare also writable by the user contained dedicated offset and gaincalibration registers for each physical channel. This dedicated pair ofregisters results into a non-optimal utilization of silicon area, as theuser who intends to connect only a subset of available channels anddoesn't get to use the registers dedicated to the unused channels. Theapproach according to the invention rectifies the problem by allowingthe user to assign any register to any physical channel.

FIG. 4.1 is a register diagram of the serial port 140 of FIG. 1 showingcalibration and SRAM/control logic 150 of FIG. 1.1.

FIG. 4.2 is a block diagram of a serial multiplier of FIG. 3.6implementing the encoding scheme shown in FIGS. 4.1.0 and 4.1.1 toachieve multiplication. The data structure shown in FIGS. 4.2 and 4.3describes how to access the offset and gain registers through serialport.

For example, if a command issued is 21 (Hex), it translates to writingoffset register 3. (Offset 3 in FIG. 9) similarly 12 (Hex) translates towriting gain register 2 (Gain 2 in FIG. 1). This way the user can reador write to any offset/gain register through serial port. Theseregisters are also written during calibration. They get used duringnormal conversion to adjust offset and gain of the converter.

FIG. 4.3 shows more of the serial port command structure shown on FIG.4.2.

The following command byte structure describes the conversion commands.

Consider the example of FIG. 4.4. Discussion of the correspondingFigure. In the Example shown on FIG. 4.4, the first two bits (thoseshown to the left of the bits stream shown in the Example) indicate thatthe data structure represents a command and that the command specifiesperforming a fully settled single conversion. The next three bitshowever are pointer bits to the channel set up register. In this case,the bits “001” point to set up register number one. The first two bitsof set up register number 1 are pointers to the physical channeladdress, in this case 11. The physical channel address then identifiesthe gain and off set registers as well since, in this implementation,there is a dedicated relationship between them.

The command 88 (Hex) means, convert using setup register 2. If setupregister 2 contains physical channel information as depicted (79), itmeans that physical channel 4 should be converted using offset register4 and gain register 4.

As mentioned before, this results in a non-optimal use of registers. Ifphysical channel addresses can be delinked from the calibration registeraddress, we can achieve independent control of these registers.

One way to achieve the desired effect is by using a bit of configurationregister and more bits of setup registers as shown in FIG. 4.5.

Here the command 88 (Hex), points to setup register 2, with physicalchannel 4 to be converted. If configuration bit select is high, theaddress of the gain and offset registers now comes from the two LSB bitsof setup register being pointed to (setup register 2 in this example).Thus any physical channel can be combined with any offset/gain registerpair. In the above example, physical channel 3 is to be converted usingoffset-register 3 and gain register 3. Note that the offset and gainregisters are used in pairs so far. To offer total control over thechoice of offset or gain register, more bits of setup registers areneeded as shown in FIG. 4.6.

Returning to FIG. 1.1, when verifying the performance of an integratedcircuit chip, such as shown in FIG. 1, it is desirable to know whetheror not the 1/f performance of components, such as the programmableinstrumentation amplifier 110, is within specifications. To actuallymeasure the 1/f noise at a frequency of, for example, 0.1 Hz requiresapproximately 10 seconds of measurement time. Such a long testinginterval is inconsistent with a desire to mass produce integratedcircuit chips in high volumes.

FIG. 5.1 is a flow chart of a process for verifying that 1/f noise iswithin specifications in a short internal even if very low frequenciesare of interest. Essentially the approach used uses a determination thatchopper stabilization is working appropriately as a substitute foractually testing 1/f noise. If chopper stabilization is workingproperly, then most of the 1/f noise would be eliminated.

Turning to FIG. 5.1, a test is conducted by introducing a value ofintentional offset inside the chopper stabilized amplifier greater thanthe expected random variation in amplifier input offset (800). A checkis made whether the output offset is within the range of expected outputoffset which would occur if chopper amplification were working properly(810). If the amount of offset is within that range (810-Y), the 1/fnoise is assumed to be eliminated within specification (830). If it isnot (810-N), the 1/f noise is presumed to exceed specifications and thepart is rejected (820).

FIG. 6.1 is a partial schematic, partial block diagram of the integratedcircuit of FIG. 1 used to measure the output of a thermocouple. Athermocouple 900 is connected to inputs ain1+ and ain1−. A cold junction901 produces a signal equivalent to a thermocouple at room temperatureand that signal is applied across inputs ain2+ and ain2−. The signalsfrom each of these two sources can be processed and provided to theserial data interface 902 which connects with a serial port on the chipto provide the user access to the temperature information resulting fromthe signal processing done on the chip. Exemplary power and biasinginformation is shown in the drawing.

FIG. 6.2 is a partial schematic, partial block diagram of the integratedcircuit of FIG. 1 used to measure the output of a bridge transducer.

A bridge transducer might be used in a weigh scale and might have anoutput signal of less than 5 mV. The mechanical elements of a weighscale have a temperature coefficient. It is required to measure thetemperature of the system. This is often done using a 5th resistor thatis connected to either the positive or negative supply. The resolutionrequirement for this measurement is such that amplification beforeconversion is not necessary. It is a very desirable feature in a weighscale application to be able to convert a rail/rail input signal withoutexternal components. The addition of a bypass as a unity gain mode tothe switched capacitor based ADC with rail to rail input range allowsthe easy implementation of this measurement. The real goal is low inputcurrent on the switched capacitor adc. It is required, when doing this,to provide active rough buffering so that the switched capacitor inputcurrents described earlier, which would be drawn through the resistors,do not corrupt the precision of the measurement. In this application, itis also desirable to use rough buffering and reduced input currents onthe reference. Alternatively a rough charge buffer could be replacedwith a regular buffer circuit that is not bypassed during a fine chargephase. This allows the use of resistive voltage division on thereference (for better SNR of the measurement) or protection resistors inplace.

Although the present invention has been described and illustrated indetail, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustrationand example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spiritand scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms ofthe appended claims and their equivalents.

1. An integrated circuit comprising: a. an analog to digital converter;b. a finite impulse response (FIR) filter; and c. an output mechanismselectively providing either only fully settled data from the FIR filteror all data from the FIR filter, including unsettled data, the outputmechanism comprising one or more bits of a register of the integratedcircuit which a user set to control the selection of the fully settleddata from the FIR filter or all of the data from the FIR filter,including the unsettled data.
 2. The integrated circuit of claim 1 inwhich said one or more bits of a register of the integrated circuit areset over a serial port interface.
 3. The integrated circuit of claim 1in which the analog to digital converter is a delta sigma modulator. 4.The integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the FIR filter is adecimation filter.
 5. An integrated circuit comprising: a. an analog todigital converter; b. a finite impulse response (FIR) filter; and c. anoutput mechanism selectively providing either only fully settled datafrom the FIR filter or all data from the FIR filter, including unsettleddata in which the output mechanism comprises an external pin on theintegrated circuit to which a user apply a control signal to control theselection of fully settled data from the FIR filter or all data from theFIR filter, including unsettled data.